A CHARITABLE BEQUEST

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 213, 3 June 1919, Page 4

A CHARITABLE BEQUEST

STRANGE ERROR IN A WILL. I By Telegraph—Press Association. Auokland, June 2. It occasionally happens that charitable bequests are made to institutions which either do not exist or are wrougly described in testators' wills. One ' such case cropped up at the Supreme Court to-day. It concerned tho bequest of about .£IOOO, made by an old lady to a church in England which she had' attended many years ago. The application was heard by Mr. Justice Stringer. The plaintiffs were' the trustees under the will of the late Mrs. Mary Ann Juokson, of Auckland, widow, and the defendant was tho Rev. Arthur Sincker, vicar of St. George's Church, Newcastle-undcr-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. The testator, by her wili, left the whole of her estate,'amounting to about XIOOO, to the senior clergyman of the Church of England, officiating at "St. Mary's Church, Newcastle-under-Lyine," the money to bo used for repairs or additions to the church. Inquiries were made by tho trustees, and it was found that there was no cljurch called St. Mary's at .Newcastlc-under-Lyme, the two churches of the Church of England there being named St. George's and St. Giles's. The Court was, therefore, called upon to decide the question to whom the monev should bs paid. Affidavits made in England were put in, showing that many years ago, before she left England, the testator 'regularly attended St. George's Church, and that the vicar of St. Giles's was making no claim to the money. On belialf ol' the plaintiff, it was submitted that the bequest, being: a charitable one, evidenco wa-s admissible to 6how which, church the testator intended to receive the money, and that even if it were not admitted and tho Court applied tho "cy pros" doctrine, dividing the money between the two churches in the town, the fact that one church had disclaimed the bequest would mean that St. George's ■would get the money. Mr. Justice Stringer concurred with tho views expressed, and ordered the estate to bo handed over,to the defendant, the costs to be paiV out of the estate.